Last weekend wasgorgeous here, so I was out on two nights with the 155mm. It was myfirst time splitting Gamma Virginis (Porrima) since it started to openup again. It's now at about 0.8". Despite crappy seeing at its lowaltitude, I was usually able to see two little balls touching eachother at powers of around 400X. I also looked at Eta Geminorum(Propus), which has the reputation of being tough. The close unequalpair was pretty easy at around 300X, reminding me of a dimmer, closerversion of Antares and its companion. I earlier tried this pair fromFlorida with the Stowaway, but got nowhere with that aperture. The mostfun I had last weekend was looking at the moon with my binoviewer. Thedetail I saw everywhere at 230x was stunning. Among the things thatparticularly caught my eyes were the hairlike shadow cast by the Cauchyfault, the U-shaped mountain range inside the crater Fabricius, therilles near Plinius which seem to run along a low, broad swelling onthe mare, and the strange buried crater Lamont. In February I had the Stowaway down at the Winter Star Party. We hadonly two mostly usable nights there this year, so I didn't get to dotoo much. I made a drawing of M42 and looked at a number of otherthings, including a section of Barnard's Loop and some extremelyobscure objects like the open clusters Tombaugh 1 and 2, which arepretty challenging for such a small scope. I spotted 8 galaxies in theFornax cluster. I tried to split Sirius, but the scope was too small.The previous year I was able to see Sirius B with the 155mm from there. In January I used the 92mm to see Comet McNaught low in the twilight.Last fall I used it and the 155mm to see Comet Swan. In June I had the 155mm out at the Grand Canyon Star Party. It has beenthere several times, and the 92mm has been there at least twice. Eitherscope entertains hundreds of tourists with views of Jupiter andwhatever else I feel like showing. They both collect lots ofunsolicited remarks about their views being the best available at theparty. I often wind up trying to explain why this is so without beingtoo insulting about the SCTs and reflectors used by most of the otherguys. I hope to make it out there again this June, and if so I willprobably bring one of the APs. Finally, I used both scopes last spring to see the fragments of CometSchwassmann-Wachmann. So, I hope this eases your mind about whether I still use the scopes. Iknow I don't write about my experiences the way I used to, but I didthat mostly back when I was still figuring out what these scopes coulddo. I now have a pretty good idea, so I tend to just use them withouttalking about it very much. If I ever get another of your scopes, I'msure you'll hear all about my initial results with that one too |